Rich list shows who has the most money
MOST OF THE AREA’S RICHEST PEOPLE HAVE SEEN THEIR WEALTH INCREASE
The family behind JCB have seen their wealth decrease this year by £275 million
THE owners of JCB and Stoke City have been named as the top two richest people in the West Midlands.
In the annual publication of The Sunday Times Rich List, the Coates family topped the list in the region, with JCB owners Lord Bamford and family coming in second.
The Coates family have been involved in running Stoke City FC since 1986, alongside their founding and running of the online gambling site bet365.
The brainchild of Denise Coates, 54, the growth in revenue post lockdown at bet365, based in Stoke, has seen the family fortune boosted by £189 million to £8.637 billion.
That makes Denise, her father Peter, 85, and brother John, 52, the 17th richest people in the UK.
Lord Bamford and his family saw their wealth decrease by £275 million over the past year to £4.32 billion, with the family ranking second in the West Midlands and 42nd overall for the UK.
This was down four places from 38 compared to the 2021 list. Staffordshire-born Kirsty Bertarelli, 50, who is now divorced from her former billionaire Italian husband Ernesto, is ranked equal-230th nationally this year with a personal fortune of £700m.
Phones4u mogul John Caudwell, who owns an estate near Loggerheads, placed fourth on the regional list. He saw his wealth go up £14m since the publication of the 2021 list, reports The Sunday Times.
Nationally, Sri and Gopi Hinduja and family jumped from third to first.
The industry and finance giants are now worth £28.472 billion.
ABOUT LORD BAMFORD
Lord Bamford is best known for his position at JCB, one of Britain’s most successful family-owned businesses. As chairman of the iconic construction equipment manufacturer since 1975, he has presided over the prolific global expansion of a brand that stands for strength, durability and reliability in products ranging from 46 tonne tracked excavators to children’s toys and DIY equipment.
Born in 1945 on the day his father, Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE set up JCB, Anthony Bamford’s path into the family business after leaving Ampleforth College started with an engineering apprenticeship at Massey Ferguson in France. The three years spent on the Continent were to prove invaluable in preparing him for a JCB career that started on the shopfloor in 1964 before he moved into management to lead the company’s early export drive into Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
When his father retired in 1975 after 30 years at the helm to allow “younger management to show its strengths”, he set about transforming JCB into a world leader in construction equipment technology.
An early move was to start producing major components inhouse by opening an axle factory in Wales in 1978.
This was the first of many decisions taken over four decades to vertically integrate the company’s operations.
Today, JCB makes its own transmission systems in Wales, hydraulic cylinders and cabs in Staffordshire, and off-highway engines in Derbyshire.
It is all part of Lord Bamford’s determination to have complete technological control over JCB’S product range.